A satirical student publication’s free speech rights may have been violated, court says

CALIFORNIA — A student-run satirical publication will proceed with its lawsuit against the University of California San Diego now that an appeals court has reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the case.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit says that the university may have violated students’ rights to free speech. The ruling is a victory for free speech and First Amendment advocates, and for student journalism on campus affected by punishment aimed at The Koala...

A Texas school district is being sued after a student was forced to color in his haircut with a Sharpie

School officials in Pearland, Texas, are being sued after a seventh-grade student was forced to fill in his hair design with a black Sharpie marker earlier this year. A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed Sunday against Principal Tony Barcelona, Discipline Clerk Helen Day, another official and the Pearland School District...

The constitutional rights of a transgender student were violated when he was barred from using the boys’ restroom at his Virginia high school, a federal judge ruled Friday.

The student, Gavin Grimm, said the ruling sent the message that “discrimination is not legal in America.” But the 20-year-old, who has graduated from the high school where he was banned from the boys’ restroom, acknowledged that the school system could appeal the decision, and it is “likely that this is not the end.”...

New Jersey passes ‘student borrower bill of rights’ in a bid to crack down on loan servicers

The New Jersey legislature has passed a “student borrower bill of rights” that regulates companies that service student loans, part of a national trend as America deals with its $1.6 trillion student-debt crisis.

The bill forces companies like Navient, FedLoan, and other student-loan servicers to register with the Department of Banking and Insurance and comply with borrower-friendly protections. Violations would attract a $10,000 fine the first time and $20,000 for subsequent ones. It also creates a student loan ombudsman in the state agency...

Sheffield University student wins Facebook post appeal

Felix Ngole, 39, was removed from a postgraduate social work course at the University of Sheffield in 2016 after posting the Facebook comment.Judges overturned a previous court ruling and said the university should reconsider Mr Ngole's case.The university said it was considering its response to the judgement...

Rejection of LGBTQ student group leads to a fight at “unambiguously Christian” Baylor

Gay and lesbian students were hopeful a 2015 policy change could pave their way to more rights at Baylor University, one of the country’s most prominent Baptist colleges.But four years later, LGBTQ students at the Waco school say they’re still waiting for that recognition to arrive...

A blurred MAGA hat in an Adams County high school yearbook has raised questions in the community about public high school students and freedom of speech. At Littlestown Senior High School, a photo published in the school's 2019 yearbook shows two boys wearing red hats during spirit week. The boys say the "Make America Great Again" slogan, popularized by President Trump, was obscured...

Maine Legislature passes ‘Student Loan Bill of Rights’

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Maine lawmakers have passed a "Student Loan Bill of Rights" aiming to protect borrowers.The Senate unanimously enacted the legislation Monday. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has 10 days to act on the bill or let it go into law without her signature...

Civil rights organizations are urging the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to step up oversight of the student-loan servicing industry and root out discrimination.It has been two years since the bureau identified student-loan servicing as posing substantial risk of credit discrimination and pledged further investigation into disparate outcomes for borrowers. That level of evaluation requires records and data from servicing companies that manage student-loan payments on behalf of the federal government and private lenders...

Supreme Court won’t hear case on transgender school bathroom policy

The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a case challenging a Pennsylvania school district’s bathroom policy allowing transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice.The conservative Alliance Defending Freedom represented a group of students in the case, Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, alleging that the district’s policy violates student privacy. ADF has represented students and school districts in similar lawsuits across the country...

Toward the end of March, a group of Oley Valley High School drama students made their way to the former composing room floor of the Reading Eagle, performing a number from their spring musical, the Broadway hit “Newsies.”What wasn't known at the time the students sang and danced to the song “Carrying the Banner” was the drama unfolding behind the scenes between cast members and the musical's director, Stacy Lyons...

Fordham hopes free-speech lawsuit will fade as last plaintiff graduates

The last of four students who sued Fordham University over the denial of a Palestinian rights club will graduate this month, but the court battle is not over.Sophomore Veer Shetty has asked to join the two-year old lawsuit, and the university is going to court on Wednesday to try to stop him.“It would be a travesty if we weren’t able to have the club on campus just because all the people suing have graduated,” Shetty said in a recent interview. “I was happy to step in.”...

Teacher Accuses High School of Free Speech Censorship Over Article About Student in Adult Entertainment Industry

A California high school English teacher accused administrators of censoring free speech after the district required a pre-publication review of an article, which chronicled a student’s journey in the adult entertainment industry.The Lodi Unified School District’s legal responsibility to ensure the student newspaper didn't violate the education code prompted a request to see a copy of the controversial article. However, Kathi Duffel, an English teacher at Bear Creek High School in Stockton, California, and advisor for The Bruin Voice, accused the school of attempting to squelch the voice of the paper...

Parents group drops lawsuit over District 211 transgender policy

A group of parents and students Monday dropped their 2016 federal lawsuit against Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211 over policies allowing a transgender student limited access to a girls locker room.The move comes just weeks after a judge dismissed portions of the suit, including counts alleging the district violated others students' rights to bodily privacy and their parents' rights to direct their education...

A Clark University freshman who says he was falsely accused of removing a condom during sex has filed a federal lawsuit against the university, claiming he was the victim of gender-based discrimination in being found responsible for violating the school’s sexual exploitation provision.The lawsuit, filed Friday, claims such discrimination has occurred at the Worcester university before, citing a 2015 case in which another freshman accused of rape was allegedly expelled without investigation...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Department of Human Rights and Attorney General Keith Ellison are joining a lawsuit that claims the Anoka-Hennepin Schools District discriminated against a transgender student by not allowing him to change in the locker room with his peers.The lawsuit was originally filed last month by several organizations, including the Minnesota ACLU...

A high school student in Pennsylvania has filed a complaint against her school, claiming that her civil rights were violated, and that she was subjected to sexual harassment,when a transgender student used the same locker room as her.An attorney working with the teen has already filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division, detailing the female student’s experience in a Honesdale High School locker room earlier this year...

A Fairfax County student was accused of sexual harassment. He says the school system discriminated against him.

A Northern Virginia high school student is suing the state’s largest school system, arguing he faced discrimination after a classmate accused him of sexual harassment.The 18-year-old, identified as “John Doe” in court papers, said that Fairfax County Public Schools inadequately investigated accusations leveled against him by a female student at Robinson Secondary School. The male student, who has a 3.2 grade-point average and was on the school’s wrestling team, was transferred to an alternative school and placed on probationary status, according to the lawsuit...

A high school student in Ohio is speaking out after she was suspended for posting Bible verses in her school in response to LGBT pride flags displayed in hallways.

Gabby Helsinger, a Lebanon High School student, posted a video on Facebook Friday claiming she is being punished for “targeting” the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club.

“On Thursday when I got to school, I see that there were pride flags, posters around my school,” Gabby said in the video. “And I felt the need to write down some Bible verses so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down and I put them around the lockers, the walls.”...

The Shawnee Mission school board at a special meeting Tuesday night agreed to a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union over a lawsuit alleging the district violated students’ First Amendment rights during a protest against gun violence.

The ACLU had filed the lawsuit in federal court last year alleging that the school district violated students’ freedom of speech when school officials abruptly stopped student-led rallies for April’s National Student Walkout Day...

A transgender student who was denied access to the boys bathroom and locker room by the Blue Springs school district has the right to sue for sex discrimination, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

In a 5-2 decision, the court overturned a Jackson County court’s dismissal of the student’s lawsuit against the district, ruling in favor of the student, identified in court records as R.M.A...

Civil rights complaint being filed for 11-year-old Lakeland student arrested after confrontation for not standing for Pledge of Allegiance

Ford’s comments stem from the arrest and suspension of the sixth-grader at Lawton Chiles Middle Academy on Feb. 4 after the student refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and was then asked to stand up by a substitute teacher, Ana Alvarez.

“I asked the student to stand up for the pledge and he answered that he won’t because the flag of this country was racist,” Alvarez wrote in a statement to police. “He then started to explain why the National Anthem was offensive to black people.”...

Christian student challenged a school history lesson on Islam and lost in court

As a high school junior, Caleigh Wood refused to complete a history lesson on “The Muslim World” that she said forced her to embrace Islam in conflict with her Christian faith — and the Constitution.

A federal appeals court this week disagreed, saying school officials in Southern Maryland had not violated Wood’s First Amendment rights because the curriculum did not endorse a particular religion “and did not compel Wood to profess any belief.”...

One day after a federal court ruled in favor of a Christian group that argued it was discriminated against by the University of Iowa, conservative students visited the Capitol to advocate for a bill seeking to promote free speech on campus.

"I believe personally that some of the violations of our free speech have affected the conservative groups on campus more than other groups and I would like to remedy that," said Trevor Kems, a sophomore at Iowa State University studying computer engineering who spoke Thursday in favor of the bill...

New University policy requires disclosure of felony charges and convictions within a week for all faculty and staff

The University of Michigan implemented a new policy Monday requiring members of the community to disclose all charges and convictions of felonies within a week of the charge or conviction. The policy applies to all faculty and staff, including student employees, volunteers and visiting scholars...

A High School Allegedly Banned Students From Covering A Classmate’s Arrest

At the beginning of the school year, one of Kyra Howard's high school classmates abruptly stopped showing up for classes.

Nobody at Plainfield High School in Indiana knew what had happened to the student, Levi Stewart, and school administrators weren’t talking. Some kids guessed he’d been suspended. Among a suburban high school of 1,600 students, his absence was noticed because he was active on campus and a drum major in the state champion school marching band. "He was a prominent kid around school," said Howard, who as a student journalist may have been more curious than others...

Lawsuits: Michigan State is biased against males in sex assault cases

More than three years of missteps in handling sexual assault cases has made Michigan State University swing the pendulum from not believing victims to now discriminating against male students, three lawsuits allege...

Judge dismisses the lawsuit filed by Arrowhead High School student who sued over her soccer suspension

A Waukesha County Circuit judge has dismissed an Arrowhead High School student's lawsuit against the school, which she filed this spring after the school district suspended her from four soccer games for hosting a party at her parents' house at which underage drinking took place...

Cal Poly is threatening free speech, say students who were warned for protesting Raytheon

Five Cal Poly students who protested the relationship between the defense contractor Raytheon and the university at a fall campus career fair say school officials are trying to intimidate them from exercising their free speech rights…